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Mugabe buys support
of top army officers as discontent swells in ranks

The Sunday Times, UK April 09, 2006

Christina
Lamb

THE Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe has
placed army and intelligence officers in control of key state institutions
in an attempt to retain military support and quell discontent amid
widespread hunger and opposition threats of mass
mobilisation. The attorney-general, chief executive of the Grain
Marketing Board (the national food monopoly), and the head of the country's
electoral commission are all now serving or retired officers of the Zimbabwe
Defence Forces (ZDF), as are several members of the newly created
Senate.

Last week Mugabe put Constantine Chiwenga,
the ZDF chief, in charge of tax collection after reports of corruption at
the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority. The Financial Gazette, one of the last
independent newspapers, was taken over by the Central Intelligence
Organisation.

While Mugabe has been appeasing those at the
top by handing out positions and seizing white farms, there are growing
indications of unrest in the ranks. So many junior officers have been
leaving because of poor pay and lack of food that last month the government
issued a ban on quitting before the completion of 10 years'
service.

The discontent is symptomatic of that of most
Zimbabweans struggling to find just one meal a day. The country's economy
has shrunk more than any other in the past five years and inflation is now
1,150%. World Health Organisation statistics released on Friday showed life
expectancy to be shorter than anywhere else: 34 years for women and 37 for
men.

Last week Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), began a nationwide tour to
drum up support for his planned "winter of discontent".

The government promptly warned opponents against attempts to unseat it and
threatened to "eliminate them physically", but Tsvangirai, who has survived
two assassination attempts, remained defiant. "This is a typical defence
mechanism from a government that knows they don't have an answer to the
people's plight but are determined to keep power for power's sake," he
said.

Trading
places

They seemed a model for the new Zimbabwe, the white farmer
and his loyal black nanny. Then the family's beloved Aqui led the rebels who
took over the farm. Christina Lamb found out why

It
was winter in Zimbabwe and at the height of the farm invasions when I first
met Nigel and Claire Hough on their large ostrich farm about an hour from
Harare. We sat on the terrace outside their farmhouse, chatting and taking
tea and madeira cake, trying to ignore the wood smoke rising from the huts
of the war veterans at the end of the lawn. It was August 2002.
The war vets had been living at the bottom of the garden for months. Every
night the Hough (pronounced Huff) family tossed and turned to drumming and
chanting. Every morning Nigel would find the carcasses of slaughtered
cattle.

Their property, Kendor, was the only white
farm left in the Wenimbi valley in the tobacco-growing district of
Marondera. The first murder of a white farmer had happened only a few miles
away in April 2000. Since then many farmers had been badly beaten; some had
been hacked to death. Most had been either kicked off or
fled.

The Houghs had thought about leaving. But the
1,400-acre farm and eight-bedroom house was their dream. They had worked
hard and sunk all their money into it.

From the highest
point in the area they could see 30 miles in all directions over a canopy of
msasa trees and stunning granite rocks. They loved that spot and had
christened their four children there, including the most recent, little
blonde Megan.

They could not imagine starting all over again.
Other white farmers who had moved abroad to England or Australia had ended
up driving minicabs and living in poky council flats. Besides, the Houghs
employed 300 people as well as running an orphanage for children whose
parents had died in the Aids pandemic.

Nigel and Claire
encouraged me to talk to Aqui (pronounced Ack-we), their much-loved maid and
nanny. An exceptionally bright woman with a great big laugh, she was
refreshingly candid as well as stunning in her red and white polka-dot
uniform and green headscarf.

To the Houghs and their four
young children, Aqui, short for Aquinata, was almost part of the family.
Nigel had paid for the schooling of her children, and she had a wonderful
warm way about her that his own children loved. They talked and joked
together in a manner that gave me hope for the future of
Zimbabwe.

Their relationship seemed different from any other
I had seen between white farmers and black servants there - rather uplifting
at a time when Robert Mugabe's government was promoting racist hate-speak in
the state media.

I wrote an article describing Nigel as
"a model white farmer", and I pointed out that to take his farm would expose
the fact that the Zimbabwean government was clearly not interested in
helping its people.

Within days, to my horror, the farm was
seized. Shortly afterwards I got a phone call from Nigel. He had come to
London to look at moving his family here after all, as they were eligible
for British passports.

We met in a coffee bar opposite
Highbury and Islington Tube station. It was a miserable day, cold rain
pinging on the windows.

As we warmed our icy hands on the
steaming mugs, he said: "I have to tell you something bad. It was Aqui, you
know."

I looked at him in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"Aqui. It was Aqui who took my farm."

I stared at him,
stunned. They had seemed to have such a good relationship. "I can't believe
it," I said.

"You know it's almost the worst thing," he
replied, "worse than losing the farm. She was spitting at me, yelling at me,
'Get out or we'll kill you! Whites have no place in this country!' I just
keep seeing her face twisted with all that hatred."

Nigel
shook his head as if trying to remove the memory. All the old spirit seemed
to have gone out of him. He looked wrong in London, his loping walk, his
shoulders hunched under the grey sky.

"I can't move here, you
know," he said as he battled to get his ticket into the slot at the Tube
station barrier. "There's just too many people and no sun or
space."

Why had Aqui done this to him? Why had she thrown him
out and traded places with him? It took a long time to track down the
answer. But I got to know both Aqui and Nigel well over the next couple of
years, and I started to understand their story.

Intriguingly, Aqui and the Houghs are now back together again. So what
really happened?

ALTHOUGH they were born only six
months apart in 1962, the childhoods of Aqui and Nigel could not have been
more different.

Aqui lived among the cactus trees in one of
the native reserves, communal lands into which blacks had been shunted when
the whites came in the 1890s. It was a desolate place of round, mud-and-pole
huts with thatched roofs.

She was the eldest of five
children. There had been eight but two brothers and a sister died as
infants. A Catholic, Aqui was proud that her parents were clever and, unlike
most of the villagers, did not believe in ghosts or tokoloshes that could
possess you, poison your food, or bewitch your enemies.

One day she came home from school to hear agonised wailing. It was a
neighbour whose husband, Lovemore, worked as night watchman on a tobacco
farm. His duty was to keep the fires burning as the tobacco dried, but he
was always falling asleep at his post.

Usually the farmer
would cuff him awake. But this time, finding him snoozing yet again, the
angry baas (boss) had thrown Lovemore on the fire and left him to burn to
death. This gave Aqui something new to think about.

"Whites didn't often venture into native reserves," she told me. "The only
white people I had ever seen were Father Walter, the Irish missionary at the
church, and the white policeman.

"It was very important in
those days for a white person to talk to you, you would be so happy, but
most of them didn't. When they did, they spoke loudly, as if we were many
miles away.

"All I knew was that our skins were different and
that being white somehow gave you a special power and my grandfather didn't
like them. He was very cheeky and refused to pay tax on his cattle, and when
the black policemen came on a motorbike to collect it he told them off for
doing the dirty work of whites and took out his sjambok to chase them
away."

Although Aqui knew that the nuns at school said it was
wrong to hate, they also said they were all God's creatures. She didn't
understand why having a white skin should make some people different. She
thought about Lovemore toasting on the fire and how his skin would have
crackled and burnt like mealie cobs, and she began to start hating
whites.

Nigel, the son of a prosperous Englishman who had
settled in Rhodesia after serving as a pilot in the second world war, grew
up by contrast on a large farm with tennis courts, weekly parties and
twice-yearly trips to the Indian Ocean.

White boys like
Nigel thought it not at all unreasonable that blacks should be barred from
white hospitals, schools, bars, swimming pools, restaurants and shops or
from voting.

Like most farm children he was sent away to
boarding school at an early age. He told me how they used to throw burning
hot pennies - heated with a cigarette lighter - to black children from the
school train, laughing uproariously at the agonised
faces.

To boys like him, blacks were "munts" who "smelt and
stole things . . . our parents always said the black man couldn't be
trusted. We knew that blacks were way behind in
civilisation".

Nigel added: "Growing up in Rhodesia it was so
easy to be drawn into generalisations. When you have all these incidents at
the farm, endless theft and betrayals by servants, you have one or two ways
of going. You can either rationalise and say 'Well, that would happen with
any race' or say 'No, they're just an inferior breed and what do you
expect?' "

Aqui would always remember the year that the
Rhodesian bush war came to her village. Aged 12, she had been raped by the
headmaster at school, and, hiding in some rocks afterwards, too ashamed to
tell anyone, she saw clouds of red dust as a column of green-painted
military vehicles appeared. Guns glinted in the sun. Soldiers went through
the village warning everyone to beware of terrorists.

At
first, nobody knew what the soldiers meant. They soon found out. Caught in
what became one of Africa's most brutal civil wars, between Ian Smith's
white government and the "comrades" of the black liberation movements, the
villagers had little choice but to aid whichever soldiers turned
up.

"We girls would go into the bush and carry pots of food
and tea to the comrades but they became more and more demanding. They didn't
just want sadza (maize porridge) with vegetables, they wanted meat. My
parents gave the freedom fighters our goats and roosters and blankets and
clothes. If there was food in the huts they would take it. Cows and goats
disappeared.

"They would just say 'I want that' and take
anything, even my two dresses for their girlfriends. When there was no more
meat left in the village, they made our people go to farms to steal
cattle.

"Then Smith's soldiers would come and harass or whip
you, accusing us of looking after bush fighters. They came in our huts and
if you had meat you were in for it, even if it was from your own beasts.
They could kill you for that. 'Put your head down,' they would say, then
they would put the head of a cow on top and squash and squash until the
person was dead."

For as long as Aqui could remember, she
had heard the village elders explain that their blood and sweat - and the
bones of their dead - were in the land and they must get it
back.

"We thought it was right because of all this racism we
had grown up with, and we knew that the land should be ours. I felt white
people were very bad. If one fish is rotten, so is the whole
pond."

At 14 she was sent to live with relatives in
Marondera, where she tried to join a group leaving for Mozambique to train
to fight. Banned from going by her uncle, she trained instead as a political
mobiliser for Zanu, Mugabe's movement.

"This meant I
would go to youth centres, football matches, anywhere there would be young
people who I could recruit to fight. Some people here in town didn't know
what it was all about. I was just a young girl but I could try to influence
my friends and other young people.

"Smith's regime was very
racist and there were many things pulling us apart and I really wanted to
help so we could get out of it and have our own very nice government. We
used to sing war songs to encourage others to join and tell people to be
brave."

For Nigel at 14, life had also become
exciting. "The war was all we talked about and I desperately envied the
older boys who became soldiers." He could not wait until he was 18 and
could be out in the bush like them, head shaved, face smeared with
camouflage cream. "I really wanted to get involved and I would have pulled
the trigger on a black as quickly as anyone."

Gradually,
however, while remaining against black rule, Nigel became disillusioned.
"War seemed to be an excuse for people doing terrible things and getting
away with it."

He was still too young to fight when
negotiations in London brought an end to the war. On April 17, 1980, Prince
Charles took the royal family's last farewell salute on the African
continent and Zimbabwe was born. To 17-year-old Aqui, it seemed the best day
of her life.

"I thought I would burst with happiness. Finally
we had our own country . . . We would be in charge now." Mugabe, who became
prime minister, was her hero.

Switching on the common
room television, expecting to see Morecambe and Wise, his favourite show,
Nigel and some sixth-formers found themselves watch Mugabe's first broadcast
to the nation. They sniggered but fell silent in surprise at his
words.

"I urge you, whether you are black or white, to join
me in a new pledge to forget our grim past, forgive others and forget, join
hands in a new amity and together as Zimbabweans trample upon racism,"
Mugabe said.

Nigel was taken aback. "I had been feeling
really bleak about the future. I remember listening and thinking, 'Jeez,
maybe we've missed everything, maybe he really is a good
bloke'."

NEITHER Aqui nor Nigel could have
predicted the extraordinary events that would occur over the next 20
years.

Aqui married, had children, worked as a maid for a
kind and generous white couple and split from her increasingly violent and
unfaithful husband. Despite the evidence that Mugabe had become a tyrant and
was ruining Zimbabwe, she remained faithful to her hero. "The problem was
Mugabe was always alone with people doing bad things behind his
back."

Nigel - after a picaresque few years that saw him
working as a bush pilot, playing professional cricket in Scotland, selling
ostriches in China, making a small fortune as a businessman and going
bankrupt when the Zimbabwe economy crashed - finally became an active
Christian, fell in love with Claire, bought Kendor Farm for $350,000 and
settled down to raise a family.

Their parallel lives at
last became intertwined in 2000 when Zimbabwe was first gripped by farm
invasions.

Aqui, living in a tiny shack in a black district
of Marondera, initially welcomed the invasions. She thought about her people
in her village with their bare shelves and about her children, growing up
with no signs of the jobs as accountants, nurses or top-flight secretaries
that she had imagined.

"It was hard to feel sorry for
those white farmers. They had air-conditioners and cars and refrigerators,
ate food from packets, and went shopping in South Africa and on holiday in
Mozambique. We had grown up living on leaves and locusts and walking an hour
each way to fetch water and firewood. And some of them had treated our
people very bad."

Aqui was in despair when her kind employers
sold up and left for New Zealand, but she found a new job with the
Houghs.

She soon realised that they, too, were "good people".
Nigel asked her about her life and what she thought about things, even
discussing her doubts about the Old Testament. She knew he was involved in
the Movement for Democratic Change, the new opposition party, and that he
went out at night putting up political stickers. She knew Claire was scared
about this and saw the way she hugged her children close each time more news
came that another farm nearby had been invaded by men with pangas and names
like Comrade Slit-eyes or Comrade Double-trouble.

On
Sunday, April 16, 2000, the Houghs came home from church in tears. The vets
had murdered David Stevens, a neighbour and friend. Television footage
showed the blackened remains of his farm. Other farmers were fleeing; 50
families left Marondera that day.

As Claire watched the
reports and listened to her children playing happily outside with Aqui, she
felt a cold dread creep over her. "I suddenly felt very vulnerable. If it
came to it, how would we know who to trust? I wanted to
leave."

Aqui's attitude to the farm invasions was
conflicted.

"I agreed with the fact that the land should be
shared, particularly as there were those whites who were greedy and had vast
farms or three or four farms they weren't even using. But because I worked
on a farm I knew that to be an owner you had to be very experienced and have
lots of capital. I didn't agree with the idea that people with nothing could
come in and just take over."

She added: "Of course I
wished I had a house like the Houghs instead of (my) small shack, all
squashed up like a nest . . . (but) jealousy doesn't work. It makes you
destroy people."

Aqui saw that it was not the poor landless
blacks who were being given the invaded farms. Sinister men appeared in
leather coats and bush hats, Zanu party bigwigs. Nobody would complain, for
fear stalked the air. Torture, beatings and disappearances once again became
part of life, as they had been during the liberation war.

By May 2002, the Wenimbi valley had turned into a battlefield with
roadblocks everywhere manned by youths in red bandannas and Mugabe T-shirts,
all high on mbanje (cannabis).

Every evening Nigel checked
all the doors and windows in the house, but he knew that if the war vets
wanted to get in with their axes, pangas and guns, no amount of locks or
burglar bars would stop them. The house he and Claire loved so much was
starting to feel like a prison.

"The endless stream of
anti-white propaganda whenever you turned on the radio was really getting to
us. Everyone was snapping at each other and the children had grown clingy,
biting at their sleeves and reluctant to go to school or nursery in case
their parents were not there when they came back."

When depressed, Nigel would go to the lookout point above the msasa trees.
There he would feel close to God. And then there was Aqui. "She kept us
sane. Within a few months of employing her she had already become the heart
of the family and within a couple of years we couldn't imagine life without
her. I liked the fact she shared my faith and always had a big smile on her
face. The kids adored her. She seemed to have endless patience. When the
children had chicken pox, she would sit for hours wiping their fevered
brows, and when Christian (his son) put his foot through some rotten wood,
she spent hours picking all the chagga worms out of his feet . . . I guess
what surprised me most was how bright she was. You never had to explain
things twice to her."

She told Nigel about her experiences
during the war and of being spat at by Rhodesian soldiers. "I felt guilty.
It could have been me doing that."

He remembered stories
told by some of his friends in the army of the terrible things they had done
to the village girls, such as sticking hot pokers up their vaginas, and
wondered if more had happened to her than she was saying.

He liked to talk to her about the differences between blacks and whites, and
he was fascinated by her answers.

"She insisted to me that
whites don't get jealous in the same way as blacks. That was one of the
reasons when the black guys seized the farms they always stripped the
houses, otherwise someone would get jealous and come and take it from
them."

He was so intrigued by his conversations with Aqui
that he set up a mixed-race discussion group to try to promote
understanding.

"It was quite funny. All the white guys said
there is no industry among the blacks, they are lazy. Then all the blacks
said the whites are not industrious. I was incredulous. I said, 'How can you
say that? We create all the business in this country, run the mines, grow
the food.' They said, 'Yes, that's what you do, you create things, but you
don't actually work, you just sit and watch and we do all the
work'."

NIGEL worried about what would happen to Aqui and
his staff and their families if the farm were taken over. At the end of July
2002, the day came at last.

A woman called Netsai arrived
at the farm gate with a group of eight war vets. "I want to move into my
house today," she demanded, pulling out a typed piece of paper stating that
Kendor was now hers. "This is my farm. These are my ostriches. And this is
my house."

Nigel managed to get rid of them, but a week later
he was visiting Harare when his farm manager telephoned to say that Netsai
had come back with a much larger group. Aqui had apparently let them in the
gate to shelter from the rain.

Nigel's first concern was
for his family. The two elder children, Jess and Emma, were at school, and
Claire was taking Christian to nursery. Only baby Megan had been at home;
but Aqui had handed her to a visiting neighbour to take to safety. Thank God
for Aqui, thought Nigel, not for the first time.

He raced
home with an old friend, Pete Moore, a former member of the Rhodesian SAS.
By the time they reached Kendor, the mob had started a fire in the driveway.
"Hondo, hondo," they chanted, Shona for war. Nigel telephoned the police but
they refused to involve themselves in "domestic matters". The crowd
surrounded him, nostrils flaring as they scented blood. "This is not
Rhodesia any more!" shouted one man.

Nigel and Pete managed
to get into the house, and the mob went quiet. "They went off and got all
these guys, plied them with beer and mbanje so they were rabid, then came
back and started doing all their song and dance, banging a large drum,
waving sticks and shouting 'Hondo'. By that time there were more than 50 of
them."

That's when he saw Aqui. "To my horror I realised that
Aqui had joined the group and seemed to be its leader. I couldn't believe
it. Not Aqui. I don't think I had ever felt so betrayed."

As darkness fell, the group swelled to more than 100 and the drumming became
more persistent. Pete asked to see his guns.

Reluctantly
Nigel unlocked his gun cabinet. He remembered his school lessons about
Rhodesian heroes killed a century ago as they sang the national anthem. "I
didn't want to die like a hero. I didn't want to die."

The
war vets were singing and dancing again, rattling the windows. Nigel could
see Aqui in the thick of it, shouting, "Blacks in! Whites out!" and "Down
with whites!" "To me it looked like she was leading the lot. I said, 'I
don't want to ever talk to her again. I've trusted her as a member of the
family and can't believe she is doing this'."

He thought
about all they had done for her, the medical insurance for her asthma, the
school fees for her children, the uniforms, even sending her second
daughter, Valerie, on a secretarial course. They had just paid for Aqui to
have some cordon bleu cookery lessons.

"It was not just the
money but the utter sense of betrayal. You have these people as part of your
life, they are exposed to all your private stuff, you trust your children to
them, then that day you suddenly see her transformed into this rabid
character leading the pack of war vets shouting 'Get out, whites!' and
'Death to whites!'

Extracted from House of Stone by
Christina Lamb to be published by HarperCollins on April 18 at £18.99.
Copies can be ordered for £17.19 including postage from The Sunday Times
BooksFirst on 0870 165 8585

Mass strikes loom as Zimbabwe's economy worsens

Yahoo News

2 hours, 1
minute ago

HARARE (AFP) - The possibility of mass strikes loom on the
horizon for Zimbabwe's embattled economy as workers demand higher wages to
cushion them against soaring living costs because of hyper-inflation and
shortages of foreign currencies.

Wage talks opened two weeks ago and
were expected to continue until the end of the month in Zimbabwe, where
large-scale labour action could become a reality for the first time in eight
years, according to unionists.Zimbabwe's inflation reached an all-time high
of 913.6 percent on Friday with no end in sight for price hikes, analysts
added, bringing more hardship to the southern African
country.

"Although there have not been many strikes for some time now,
industrial actions are most likely to happen this year," union spokesman
Collin Gwiyo told AFP on Thursday.

"The salaries that most workers
get are an embarrassment. By the time we get to August there will be a
series of wage and salary deadlocks," said Gwiyo, acting secretary general
of the major Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU).

Independent
economic analyst Best Doroh added: "It's obvious that the potential for
deadlock between employers and employees is quite high."

"The purchasing
power of wages for the factory worker even those for civil servants have
been severely eroded," Doroh told AFP.

Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate
rose from 613.2 percent in January to the record high Friday, blamed partly
by central bank governor Gideon Gono on the printing of money to service
debt to the

International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Gono revealed in
February that the central bank resorted to printing 21 trillion Zimbabwean
dollars (211 million US dollars) to buy foreign currency to clear the
country's arrears with the IMF.

Zimbabwe last month paid nine million US
dollars to the IMF to avert expulsion from the global lender over the
long-overdue arrears.

Analysts however said Zimbabwe's galloping
inflation was the sign of a failed economy, with economist David Mupamhadzi
saying "we are now feeling those effects of printing the money."

The
National Employment Councils Union said in its latest figures that farm
workers earned a meagre 1.3 million Zimbabwean dollars (13 US dollars, 10
euros) a month, mine workers got 6.5 million Zimbabwean dollars, while
school teachers got 8.5 million Zimbabwean dollars.

The average room
rental price in the high density areas of the capital Harare topped at
between 1.5 and two million Zimbabwean dollars, while Zimbabwe's highest
currency denomination, a 50,000 bearer cheque introduced in February, is not
enough to buy a loaf of bread.

Gwiyo said the average worker needed 25-30
million dollars a month to make ends meet.

He said the southern
African country's workforce have for years refrained from taking to the
streets in numbers fearing reprisals under Harare's tough security laws
which forbid strikes and marches without police clearance.

Unionists also
feared that mass action would be construed as political as the leader of one
faction of Zimbabwe's divided opposition is Morgan Tsvangirai, a former ZCTU
secretary general who led mass strikes in 1998.

But employees said their
hands were tied should strikes go ahead.

"Employers are in the same
predicament as their workers," said Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe
president Mike Bimba.

"We have not had many strikes over the years
because of our cordial relationship with workers... and I hope it will
continue," he told AFP.

"Everybody knows that the economic situation is
to blame for these problems both employers and employees are
facing."

Economist Erich Block said although wage talks would see a
number of deadlocks, he believed that strikes were unlikely.

"Both
employers and employees are facing the same difficulty but I doubt that we
will have widespread strikes. Everyone wants to protect the little that they
have," he said.

South Africa to bring 'dogs of war' to heel . but
let nationals join al-Qaeda

Sunday Herald, Scotland

From Fred Bridgland in
Johannesburg

A startling fact is emerging from the battlefields
of Iraq. According to South African anti-war activists, one in five
coalition soldiers are mercenaries.With estimates of more than 30,000
private "security experts" operating along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers,
mercenary battalions now comprise the second largest force in Iraq. There
are 8000 British soldiers in Iraq and 15,000 other coalition troops besides
the American force of more than 130,000.

Iraq's huge oil reserves and
the as yet uncontained resistance have made it a mecca for mercenaries. Big
American corporations such as Halliburton and Bechtel hire private armies to
protect their assets, paying "dogs of war" more than $1000 a day to put
their lives on the line.

Some 5000 to 10,000 of the hired guns in Iraq
are South Africans. Most have been recruited as bodyguards and drivers, but
several hundred are alleged to have fought alongside Americans, British and
other coalition troops in various hotspots.

So alarmed is the South
African government at the number of personnel quitting special units - such
as the South African police service's elite task force, which protects
President Thabo Mbeki and top government ministers, and the South African
army - to join security companies in Iraq that an anti-mercenary law has
been introduced.

Under the sweeping new legislation, which has been
before parliament for six months but which has yet to be enacted, the
thousands doing security work in Iraq - as well as 700 South Africans
serving in Britain's armed forces - could be arrested for mercenary
activities.

The law - The Prohibition of Mercenary Activity and
Prohibition and Regulation of Certain Activities in an Area of Armed
Conflict - is so broad that even a non-South African security company
executive who does not employ South Africans could be arrested if he or she
sets foot in South Africa, according to Johannesburg lawyer Peter
Leon.

Leon, representing the British Association of Private Security
Companies, and other critics have pointed to a bizarre anomaly in the draft
legislation that would make it perfectly legal for a South African to join
al-Qaeda-backed insurgents in Iraq while making it a criminal offence to
provide protection for charities giving humanitarian assistance to Iraqi
civilians.

Leon, who also represents Erinys International, a British
security firm employing several hundred South Africans in Iraq, said the law
specifically excludes from prosecution any South African supporting "a
struggle waged by peoples for their right to national liberation,
self-determination, independence against colonialism, or resistance against
occupation".

This throws up all manner of anomalies. For example, a
former African National Congress (ANC) guerrilla could not join the army of
the ANC government's close ally, Angola, in the fight against the insurgency
by rebels of the Front for the Liberation of the [Angolan] Cabinda Enclave
(FLEC). But the former guerrilla could join FLEC and be within South African
law.

The new legislation, which hugely strengthens the previous 1999
law, the Foreign Military Assistance Act, is driven as much by politics as
by security. The ANC government, which came to power in 1994 after decades
of apartheid rule, fought alongside Angola's former Marxist Army, in Angola,
against such crack apartheid-era forces as the Buffalo Battalion, the
Reconnaissance Commandos and the Parachute Brigade.

It is from such
units that many current fighters serving abroad are recruited. Ironically,
however, many were subsequently recruited by the Angolan government to hunt
down and kill, in co-operation with Israeli special forces, the rebel leader
Jonas Savimbi. And Britain's armed forces welcomed South Africans from the
mercenary company Executive Outcomes, who with just a few hundred men and a
few helicopters, decisively defeated the repugnant Revolutionary United
Front (RUF) rebels in Sierra Leone.

The ANC began drafting the new
legislation following the failure of the 2004 coup attempt, launched from
South Africa by former Scots Guards and SAS officer Simon Mann, against
Equatorial Guinea's president Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, a classically
stereotypical African dictator. Mann recruited 70 mercenaries in South
Africa. But South Africa's intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils tipped off
the Zimbabwe government that the mercenary flight intended stopping off in
Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, to pick up arms. All the mercenaries were
jailed, and Mann continues to serve a sentence in Harare's notorious
Chikurubi prison. Sir Mark Thatcher, son of former British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher, lived alongside Mann in Cape Town and was fined £265,000
and given a four-year suspended jail sentence for his part in planning the
coup.

The ANC government set out to make an example of Mann, Thatcher and
their men. "We don't like the idea of South Africa becoming a cesspool of
mercenaries," said foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

Peter
Leon warned, however, that: "The legislation is unworkable."

South
Africa's history as a mercenary seedbed dates back to the 1960s when its men
fought in the Belgian Congo under Colonel "Mad" Mike Hoare. And on a
continent still plagued by wars and chaos, and where laws are observed more
in the breach than observance, it is doubtful whether even the most
draconian or high-minded legislation will muffle the call "Cry havoc and let
slip the dogs of war".

CFU amends constitution in support of land
reform

Sunday News, Zimbabwe

Harare Bureau

HARARE - In an about-turn, the
Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) has thrown its weight behind the land reform
programme and is amending its constitution to rid the organisation of
members who are antagonising Government policies on agriculture.CFU
president Mr Doug Taylor-Freeme and his deputy, Mr Trevor Gifford, met the
Minister of State for National Security, Lands, Land Reform and
Resettlement, Cde Didymus Mutasa and the Minister of Agriculture, Dr Joseph
Made, last Thursday and spelt out the organisation's new position on the
land reform programme.During the meeting, Mr Taylor-Freeme reportedly
said his leadership felt that it was high time the CFU worked with the
Government in reviving the economy through the agricultural sector.He
said gone were the days when the CFU was viewed as an opponent of the land
reform programme, adding that the perception had been created by the
previous leadership.This policy shift by the white farmers' body comes
after years of fierce opposition to land reforms spearheaded by the union's
previous leadership with the more radical elements of the group breaking
away to form a rabidly anti-Government organisation known as Justice for
Agriculture.So heavily opposed was the CFU to land reforms that Dr Made at
one point described the organisation as an irrelevant body.But this
position is set to change."We are saying we are prepared to work with the
Government in anything that has got to do with reviving our economy through
agriculture. We are a young generation of white farmers who want to see our
economy back on track through agriculture."We have the expertise and
skills and we are prepared to assist new farmers,'' said Mr Taylor-Freeme in
an interview after the meeting.He said CFU was a business entity whose
objectives were mainly centred on business and not politics.The
organisation was prepared to assist in re-opening international markets for
agricultural products that had been closed soon after the Government
embarked on the land reform programme.Mr Taylor-Freeme said although the
CFU has previously been associated with the opposition MDC, that perception
is wrong."We are not in politics at all. We want to see our economy being a
vibrant one through agriculture. We are capable of doing that,'' he
said.He said that once the two parties worked together, the building of
confidence and trust would be achieved, thereby attracting foreign
investment.Mr Taylor-Freeme said the CFU realises that there is need for
farmers and Government to complement each other to develop a united approach
and have a common vision on national economic recovery and growth."We
can do skills transfer in trying to bring the industry together. We also
have linkages in marketing and production which we can use to fully revive
our economy,'' he said.He said the union's leadership would take stern
measures against those members of the organisation that were antagonising
the efforts being made by both parties in reviving the economy."We
encourage our members to be helpful to new farmers and accept that the land
reform programme is a necessary exercise. The redistribution of land was
necessary and we must live as Zimbabweans,'' he said.The organisation had
already submitted more than 200 application forms for land allocation and
were hoping to get a favourable response from the Government.Welcoming
CFU's move, Cde Mutasa said Government was prepared to work with anyone
interested in the development of the agricultural sector as long as it was
within the context of ensuring success for the exercise.Cde Mutasa said it
was pleasing to note that the CFU's young leadership had realised that the
way forward was to work with the Government instead of being
antagonistic.The "diehard Rhodesians" who were in the previous leadership
had created that perception which the young leadership of the union now
wants to correct."We welcome that move as the new leadership wants to
work with us. The environment is now showing that a lot of people had wrong
perceptions about Zimbabwe's land reform programme."Zimbabwe is going to
be a huge success story and everybody now wants to be associated with that
success story. That is why we are seeing people coming forward,'' said Cde
Mutasa.He said the CFU's current leadership was a group of young people who
had a bigger role to play in agriculture.His ministry would examine the
application forms received for land allocation without favour or
bias."We are treating every person in need of land in the same manner.
Whether white, black or Asian, we examine the applications in the same
manner," said Cde Mutasa.Turning to the issuance of the 99-year-leases
to new farmers, Cde Mutasa said those who collected forms had already
returned them adding that his ministry was in the process of examining those
forms."When we issue out these leases, there will be an event where about
300 leases will be issued out. We are looking at issuing these in
Mashonaland Central where farming activities on individual farms are very
impressive,'' said Cde Mutasa.

Responding to Mugabe's threats that any
attempts to lead peaceful demonstrations against his government could result
in his death, a fired up Tsvangirai said:

"I am prepared
to die in order to liberate the people of Zimbabwe from Zanu PF's
misrule.

Who are you Mugabe to talk about the death or life
of an individual, are you God?

Even if I am killed, one
thing is certain, all dictators, just like other people, will die. If I die
first, I will be waiting for you in heaven and I will ask you if you managed
to improve the lives of Zimbabweans."

He said the success
of his faction's congress had shaken Zanu PF resulting in mass panic among
the party's leadership.

"Every time you see Zanu PF officials
addressing people, none of them is ever calm.

They are
always shouting and abusive because they have no solutions for the crisis
facing the country and have no idea on how to solve the chaos they
created."

Tsvangirai blasted Mugabe's last ditch efforts to
engage in what he terms "building bridges" with British Premier, Tony
Blair.

"What kind of a person are you? The solution to the
crisis in Zimbabwe is right here in Zimbabwe not in Britain. You should
build bridges with Tsvangirai not Tony Blair."

Midway
through his address, several youths who allegedly belong to the pro-Senate
camp started ordering Tsvangirai's followers to leave the
rally.

Tsvangirai's followers beat them
up.

A police officer who tried to shield them from further
beatings was also beaten up and saved by the arrival of reinforcements from
the anti-riot squad.

Tsvangirai has embarked on
nationwide rallies to mobilise people ahead of anticipated street protests
against the government's misrule and failure to manage the economy. He has
already toured the Midlands and Masvingo, and attracted bumper
crowds.

Tsvangirai will address a rally at White City Stadium
in Bulawayo today with further rallies lined up for Bindura, Mutare, Gwanda,
Chinhoyi and Hwange.

Shamuyarira and Mutasa cross swords

Zim Standard

BY
CAIPHAS CHIMHETE RELATIONS between Zanu PF secretary for
administration Didymus Mutasa on the one hand, and party spokesperson Nathan
Shamuyarira on the other are seriously strained after Mutasa blamed the
latter for the collapse of Jongwe Printers and The Voice, The Standard can
reveal.

Jongwe Printers is the publishing arm of Zanu PF,
while The Voice is its official publication.

Mutasa, who
is also National Security, Land Reform and Land Resettlement Minister,
reportedly told President Robert Mugabe that Shamuyarira was the architect
of Zanu PF's crumbling empire, an accusation that torched off the ire of
party's spokesperson.

Impeccable sources at Zanu PF
headquarters said the two now do not see "eye to eye" or even greet each
other when they meet in the corridors.

They said Mutasa's
report to Mugabe followed Shamuyarira's failure to avail audited accounts
for both Jongwe Printers and The Voice, which were a pre-condition for a
rescue package from the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) to the
collapsing newspaper.

Shamuyarira presides over both Jongwe
Printers and The Voice, which have failed to publish for the past two weeks
after Sovereign Printers refused to print the newspaper because of a $2b
debt.

The sources said Mutasa recommended to Mugabe that the
party replace the ageing Shamuyarira from the post of chairman of Zanu PF's
fast crumbling empire.

Mugabe reportedly summoned
Shamuyarira to his Munhumutapa offices for an
explanation.

"The dispute between the two has been long
standing but hell broke loose because Shamuyarira felt the audit demand and
the report to the President was Mutasa's way of pulling him down," said one
of the sources.

Last month, Jongwe attempted to dispose of
one of its buildings in Harare in a bid to raise working capital but the
sale was reportedly blocked by Mugabe.

The ailing company
owes several firms billions of dollars. Art Corporation is owned over $1b
while its printing machines were put up for auction last month for a debt of
$300m owed to Print Originators.

Shamuyarira, the sources
said, felt the CIO boss was intruding too much into companies that he
oversees and as a way of hitting back he suspended Voice editor, Lovemore
Mataire -widely seen as Mutasa's blue-eyed boy - on allegations of
"insubordination" and abuse of funds.

The Zanu PF
spokesperson suspected that Mataire was passing confidential information
about the operations of the company to Mutasa.

The CIO, which
has taken over The Daily Mirror and The Sunday Mirror, was making moves to
avail a rescue package for the struggling Zanu PF
newspaper.

Mataire, who led investment talks and held several
meetings with CIO representatives early this year, was cleared of fraud
after Mutasa withdrew the charges without the consent of Shamuyarira, who
was the complainant in the case.

Mataire was accused of
diverting $6m from the newspaper sales for personal use.

Mutasa last week vehemently denied reporting Shamuyarira to Mugabe but
confirmed he wrote to the courts asking them to withdraw fraud charges
against Mataire.

"That's not true; I never went to the
President. What I can confirm is that I withdrew the case because I felt
that it is the party that should take disciplinary action against Mataire,"
Mutasa said.

He added,

"Mumusangano wega
wega pane mukuru ndiye anozopa final decision. Semukuru ndakaita zvinodiwa
nemusangano, (In any party there is a senior person who gives the final
decision when people fail to agree. I acted in the interests of the
party)."

Shamuyarira could not be reached for comment despite
repeated efforts to get his version of the fallout. His mobile went
unanswered on Friday and Saturday.

Mataire declined to
comment, referring all questions to his lawyer, Chris Mhike of Atherstone
and Cook legal practitioners, who said his client was yet to receive the
letter of suspension.

"We have heard about the purported
suspension but we are not clear what the allegations are because my client
is yet to receive the letter," Mhike said.

16 years later, Kombayi's #1m lawsuit to take
off

SIXTEEN years after he
lodged a £1 million (about $172 billion) lawsuit against ruling party
officials, maimed Gweru businessperson Patrick Kombayi's case goes for a
pre-trial conference this week.

The Standard can reveal that
the wheels of justice might now be starting to move slowly for Kombayi who
was maimed for life after he was shot by Central Intelligence Organisation
(CIO) operatives on 24 March 1990.

It was just three days
away from a showdown with the late Vice President Simon Muzenda for the
Gweru Urban seat when two operatives shot and seriously injured Kombayi who
was the national organising secretary of the Zimbabwe Unity Movement
(ZUM).

In 1990 ZUM mounted the first notable challenge to the
ruling Zanu PF party.

Kombayi's attackers were convicted
of attempted murder but were pardoned by President Robert
Mugabe.

Kombayi, who underwent surgery in the UK, then went
to court to sue Muzenda, the ruling Zanu PF party, the Minister of State
Security who at that time was Emmerson Mnangagwa, and the
operatives.

The case never got off the ground until now -
almost two years after Muzenda's death.

"The 16-year-old
case is now only scheduled to sit for a pre-trial conference on 10th of
April at 15.00hrs in Harare.

To say justice delayed is
justice denied is really an understatement in this case," said Kombayi, who
insists he will sue Muzenda's estate.

The matter has not
until now been heard as some of the files went missing at the courts. They
were only found in the archives, after a tip-off.

But
that is not the only case Kombayi wants finalised.

In August
last year Justice Maphios Cheda ordered Mnangagwa, the Minister of Rural
Housing and Social Amenities and former Speaker of Parliament, to pay
Kombayi US$20m or Z$112b with interest and cost of the suit for
defamation.

A writ of execution against Mnangagwa's property
was subsequently issued by the High Court in November last
year.

However, Mnangagwa has won a reprieve after he
successfully applied for the rescission of Justice Maphios Cheda's default
judgement.

In his judgement, Justice Nicholas Ndou ordered
"that the judgement taken by default against applicant on 2 August 2005 be
and is hereby rescinded and that the costs of this application be borne by
the respondent (Kombayi)".

Kombayi however believes this
is yet another move meant to delay the case.

"As a lawyer
and former minister of justice, he is well aware that he was required to
file his appearance to defend and that he was to do it timeously. As far as
I am concerned. the reprieve is just meant as an abuse of the court process
and intended to frustrate me and delay the court order from being properly
executed."

Harare commission set to cede duties

COMMISSIONERS running Harare city are now courting
the business community to repair roads and street lights in the city, The
Standard has learnt.

Officials at Town House are busy
working out incentives for companies prepared to take up duties
traditionally reserved for the local authority.

A full
council meeting on Thursday tasked the City's Department of Works to come up
with the policy on the Prevention of Inner City Decay that would give
incentives to the business community prepared to bail out the local
authority.

According to the minutes, officials suggested that
rates could be reduced for organisations prepared to maintain certain roads
and streetlights within the vicinity.

"The committee felt
there was need to make the Central Business District a more attractive
environment for those who work in and enter it to buy services and goods and
implored council and all stakeholders to rehabilitate the centre into a
safe, clean, comfortable and beautiful place," reads part of the
minutes.

An internal city health department report warned
that Harare was fast degenerating into a "fly and rodent city" as a result
of garbage that goes uncollected for months .

Boy in cells after judge gets knock

A HIGH School student languished in police cells
for several days after he was arrested for allegedly knocking at the door of
a High Court judge.

The 16-year-old boy, who cannot be
named since he is a minor, was only released yesterday after his lawyers
lodged an urgent court application for his release.

An
affidavit by Virginia Mawere, the boy's mother, shows that the boy was
arrested on Thursday after Justice Joseph Musakwa made a complaint to the
police.

Musakwa, who resides at Tokwe Flats in Mabelreign,
told police that someone had knocked at his door and "they suspect that the
person intended to break into the house and steal", the affidavit
notes.

Police then picked up the boy and another one who was
quickly released following the intervention of his father who is a diplomat
at the Zimbabwe Embassy in Namibia.

"My son is only 16
years old. He is still at school ... is too young to be incarcerated for
such a trivial allegation. I have pleaded with the police to place him in my
custody and they have refused," said the mother.

She
added:

"This is a clear case where the police should have
thoroughly investigated to ensure that they do not necessarily cause
disharmony among neighbours.

It is also a case where the
complainant (Judge) could have approached myself as the guardian of the
minor child and ascertain my child's involvement before approaching the
police.It is an assault on my child's civil rights."

Musakwa said:

"As far as I know there is no question of the
mother saying we did not talk to her.

When we followed up
on an earlier incident we went to her residence and talked to the
mother.

"There are a lot of goings on in the
area.

There was damage to my residence.

The police did their investigations."

Aleck Muchadehama of
Mbidzo, Muchadehama and Makoni yesterday confirmed that the boy had been
released following their urgent application. He, however, said police
altered the charge, and accused the minor of malicious injury to
property.

A relieved close relative of the boy who paid a
$250 000 fine in order for him to avoid a weekend in cells told The
Standard: "Police didn't talk about the knock at the judge's door this
time."

They changed their story saying the hedge behind the
flats had been cut and blamed him for that. I didn't want to pay the fine
but the mother said we had to do that just to secure the release of the
minor."

Parliament ditches Zanu PF printers

Zim Standard

BY
VALENTINE MAPONGA

AFTER nearly a year of total black out,
Parliament has engaged a new company to print the Hansard after Jongwe
Printers' failure deprived the public of a vital source of information on
legislative deliberations.

The Zanu PF-owned Jongwe Printers,
facing a serious cash crisis, has also for the past two weeks failed to
print its own newspaper, The Voice, which is the official mouthpiece of the
ruling party.

Hansard is a record of the debates of the House
of Assembly.

The last Hansard was published on 26 July last
year.

Parliament has now engaged a company called High-Gloss
Printing, which will now print the Hansard.

Clerk of
Parliament, Austin Zvoma, confirmed last week that they had dumped Jongwe
Printers, the company contracted to print the parliamentary record after its
failure to produce the publication.

"We have now engaged
another printing company for the printing of the Hansard. You will be able
to get a copy of the Hansard this week.

We called them in on
a short notice because we have realised that they have the potential," Zvoma
said.

He said Parliament had always had an agreement with
Jongwe Printers in which the company would print the Hansard and receive
payment later.

However, he would not reveal the amount
involved in the new deal.

"Jongwe Printers have a backlog
of about 17 editions but they have promised to print the editions as soon as
they acquire the newsprint.

I think they will still be very
useful in the printing of Hansards since we now have two houses of
Parliament," he said.

Jongwe Printers had been printing the
Hansard since the mid-1980s.

Commenting on the failure by
Jongwe Printers to print the Hansard since last year MDC Chief Whip,
Innocent Gonese, said:

"It's a very sad development because
the public has been deprived of the opportunity to get to know what is
happening in parliament.

Newspapers just give brief accounts
of what would have happened in Parliament and the Hansard is the
alternative."

More than 8 000 copies of the Hansard are
supposed to be printed a day after each Parliamentary sitting and these are
meant for MPs, constituency information centres and the members of the
public.

Makwavarara in $100m satellite dish
controversy

Zim Standard

BY VALENTINE MAPONGA

WHILE the
commission running the city of Harare fails to deliver basic services to
ratepayers, the chairperson of the commission, Sekesai Makwavarara, just
can't resist the urge to splash out council funds on
luxuries.

Makwavarara had a satellite dish and decoder
installed at the mayoral mansion without the approval of the commission, it
has been established.

Minutes of a commission meeting
held on 8 March confirm that when Makwavarara moved from the guesthouse into
the main house, which had no satellite dish, she decided to have the news
and entertainment facility installed without seeking council
approval.

The satellite dish and decoder were acquired and
installed at a cost of $103, 4m without going to tender.

A market survey revealed that the acquisition and installation of a DSTV
satellite dish ranges between $40m and $60m depending on the packages
involved.

The issue only came to the commission's attention
when Makwavarara requested payment for the decoder and satellite to be
authorised.

It was also established that only one
company, Croft Trading (Pvt) Ltd was approached against laid down
procurement procedures, for the sourcing of the satellite
dish.

"The Acting Chamber Secretary reported that the
quotation from Croft Trading (Pvt) Ltd was the only quotation which had been
sourced," read the minutes.

The Commission, however,
resolved to pay $94 million instead of the $103 million, $4 million unless
the company produced a VAT Clearance Certificate.

They
also emphasised the need for strict adherence to laid down procurement
procedures whenever purchases were made in future.

This case
comes barely two months after Makwavarara was involved in controversy
surrounding the proposed purchase of curtains for the Mayoral mansion
totalling $35b.

While the commission has totally failed to
provide services to residents of the city citing either shortages of
resources or fuel, it is never short of funds whenever it feels the urge to
splash out.

Last week the commission was reported to have
bought its officials new vehicles, living up to its image of being big
spenders.

Court to deliver Siyoka verdict for
tomorrow

Zim Standard

By Nqobani Ndlovu BULAWAYO - Matabeleland
North provincial magistrate, John Masimba, will tomorrow (Monday) deliver
judgement in a criminal defamation case between a top Cabinet minister and
suspended chairman of the ruling party, Zanu PF.

The
Minister of Home Affairs who is also MP for Beitbridge, Kembo Mohadi, filed
criminal defamation charges against suspended Matabeleland South provincial
chairman, Lloyd Siyoka, over utterances he allegedly made to President
Robert Mugabe at a meeting at Elangeni Training Centre in Bulawayo in
November 2004.

Allegations against Siyoka are that he told
the President that Mohadi drew a pistol and threatened him at a meeting held
in Gwanda when he was suspended.

The meeting preceded the
Tsholotsho debacle and was attended by the Zanu PF presidium, central
committee members, Bulawayo and Matabeleland North and South chairpersons
and other top officials.

The case opened on 13 February with
John Nkomo, the Speaker of Parliament and Deputy Senate president, Naison
Ndlovu, and Senator Eunice Sandi testifying against
Siyoka.

Nkomo is the first witness as he chaired the meeting,
while Ndlovu and Sandi are cited as the second and third witnesses
respectively, since they attended the meeting.

Siyoka,
represented by Samp Mlaudzi, told the court that the charges by Mohadi and
the State witnesses were trumped up because of his frosty relations with
them, which soured when he assumed the post of provincial party chairman in
2001.

He also claimed that the government officials turned
against him after he exposed their corrupt activities such as multiple farm
ownership, which was in clear defiance of President Mugabe's
one-man-one-farm policy.

Siyoka alleged that differences with
Mohadi started in 2003 after he refused to evict war veterans allocated land
at a farm in the province to pave way for the minister.

He also told the court that political relations between him and the minister
further worsened when he refused to issue a public statement stating that
Mohadi did not own a number of farms.

Relations with Nkomo,
according to Siyoka, soured after he had pointed out that there was chaos in
the resettled farms when Nkomo was still the Minister responsible for Lands,
Land Reform and Resettlement.

However, in his submissions, State prosecutor,
Blessing Kundhlande said Siyoka was a liar who had created imaginary
political disputes between him and the top ruling party leadership in
Matabeleland South

Raffingora rates leave residents high and
dry

RESIDENTS of
Raffingora, which falls under Zvimba Rural District Council, are bitter over
the astronomical increase in water charges by the rural centre saying the
majority cannot afford them.

The residents said the council
unilaterally increased water charges by more than 833% with effect from 1
April.

Irate residents who called The Standard last week said
the district council was "insensitive to the plight of the people at the
rural centre", which is surrounded by farms.

They said
even after taking into account the cost of buying chemicals and pumping
water to their homes, the charges were still too high and unaffordable for
most of the people.

"I used to pay an average of $300 000 a
month but I am now required to by about $2,8m a month as if I am staying in
an urban area," complained a government employee, who requested anonymity
for fear of victimisation.

The Minister of Local
Government, Public Works and Urban Development Ignatious Chombo, is the MP
for Zvimba North, which includes Raffingora. He was not
immediately available for comment.

When contacted for
comment the local councillor, Oliver Chapanduka was
abusive.

"I don't give comments to sell-outs. You people at
The Standard are sell-outs," he said before hanging up.

Governor rents out farmhouses to
teachers

MASHONALAND West
Governor, Nelson Samkange, is renting out farmhouses to eight primary school
teachers at Rukoba farm, The Standard can reveal.

One of
the teachers who refused to be identified for fear of victimisation told The
Standard that starting March they were told to pay rent of $1 million a
month.

This came as a surprise to them as they had been using
the houses for free before the Governor took over the farm sometime in
2004.

What irked them most is that no proper maintenance has
taken place since Samkange took over.

They also believe
that the Governor is trying to cash in on the property that he did not pay
for when he acquired it.

Previously, teachers at the school
were provided with houses for free as an incentive for them to remain at the
farm school.

Asked for comment, Samkange admitted charging
the teachers $1 million rentals but said the money would go towards paying
for electricity.

He added that, in any case, government paid
them those allowances so they should pay rent like urban teachers who were
lodging in towns.

Responding to allegations from farm
workers that he was failing to pay them a paltry $350 000 a month on time,
he insisted that he was paying the stipulated $1, 3m.

But
pressed further, he said there might be other workers who could be getting
as little $340 000 due to deductions.

He said he created a
facility for his workers to get groceries from his farm store on
credit.

The money would then be deducted at the end of the
month, But Samkange blamed neighbouring white commercial farmers for
inciting his workers by paying their workers twice as much as the gazetted
wages.

Sometimes, he said, the workers were paid for doing
nothing.

He said his workers should be appreciative as he was
trying to provide secondary education for their children.

He also attributed the discontentment among his workers to "the few
misguided and mischievous who still harbour the idea that a white man might
one day come back to the farm".

Pockets Hill sabotaged

WHILE state security agents went on a wild goose
chase on an alleged arms cache in Mutare, the national broadcaster, Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Holdings, was being sabotaged, The Standard can
reveal.

The ZBH headquarters, Pockets Hill in Highlands,
which is heavily protected by armed soldiers, had its Internet and
surveillance cameras disabled.

When film footage from
surveillance cameras was viewed by security personnel, it showed two men who
sneaked into the studios in the middle of the night.

The
two men could not be identified, but it has been confirmed they are
certainly not members of ZBH staff.

Reliable sources at ZBH
told The Standard that the sabotage was committed on the fifth floor, above
the office of Rino Zhuwarara, the company's executive
chairman.

Although the incident happened in February, a veil
of secrecy has been thrown over the issue.

Senior
officials at ZBH and the Ministry of Information are reportedly fighting to
have the sabotage swept under the carpet.

Insiders said the
sabotage could have been the work of one of the factions battling for the
control of ZBH ahead of President Robert Mugabe's anticipated
retirement.

As a result of the sabotage, security at ZBH has
been beefed up.

"Even in the newsrooms and offices, we are
seeing a lot of security people on the prowl in the corridors," said a ZBH
staffer.

Strangely, while senior officials at ZBH professed
ignorance about the breach, sources at ZBH were adamant that the intrusion
took place.

Jennifer Tanyanyiwa, the ZBH corporate secretary
said:

"Please be advised that there was absolutely no
interference with ZBH operations and that can be confirmed by the
non-interruption of our services."

The Internet and
surveillance cameras usually do not affect broadcasting in any overt
manner.

Tanyanyiwa continued:

"Further, it
is the first time that we are hearing that there were people captured by
surveillance cameras interfering with operations and we would actually
appreciate if you could provide us with further details so that we can
institute investigations because as far as we are concerned, no such thing
ever occurred."

Zhuwarara also professed ignorance of the
sabotage.

"I am not aware of that. It is something that I
would take seriously as it concerns the security of ZBH.

When workers are negotiating for salaries, they will tell you
anything."

The workers said management was trying to keep
the issue secret in order to preserve their jobs.

MP begs Canada to electrify Bikita East

Zim Standard

BY OUR STAFF

BIKITA East MP, Kenneth Matimba, recently begged
the Canadian Embassy to electrify his constituency.

Matimba said the government's Expanded Rural Electrification Programme,
introduced during the run-up to the 2002 presidential election, had not
benefited his constituency due to lack of funds. This left the community
with no hope of getting power supplies, he said.

Speaking at
the commissioning of a $6, 2 billion project at Chikuku Vocational Centre in
Bikita East, Matimba implored the Canadians to rescue the
community.

Levy increase riles drought-hit
villagers

VILLAGERS in
Chimanimani district have vowed not to pay development levy, which has been
increased from $20 000 a household to $100 000 a month, saying they cannot
afford such a huge amount.

Beginning January the levy, which
is paid by every village household to the district council through the
village heads, was increased to $100 000 a month.

The
villagers, who call the levy Mari Yemusoro, said the amount was beyond their
reach especially this year when most of them failed to harvest any crops due
to poor rainfall in the region.

"I don't know where I will
get the money.

They will have to sell my chickens to raise
the money," said one elderly villager in Gudyanga
Village.

The villagers said they had already approached their
local councillor for Ward 20, Zekias Nhachi, with their
problem.

Nhachi said he would take up the issue with
Chimanimani District Administrator, Smart Chidawande.

"People here are not happy because, first they cannot afford the new amount
and secondly, they feel that they were not consulted.

It was
going to be better if it was pegged at $60 000 a household because the areas
fall under regions four and five, which are very dry," Nhachi
said.

Areas such as Gudyanga, Nyanyadzi, Hotsprings, Wengezi,
Tonhorai and Changazi fall under regions 4 and 5, which are not suitable for
agricultural activities.

Villagers in the areas rely
mainly on irrigation schemes for their food production.

As a result of the drought that hit the area this year, most families in the
area are dependent on food donations from donor organisations such as
Christian Care International as well as buying food from the Grain Marketing
Board (GMB).

"The problem with the grain from GMB is that it
last came in November last year and when it comes, it is distributed
according to political affiliation," said Nhachi, who showed The Standard a
copy of the letter he wrote to Chidawande complaining about politicisation
of food.

Chidawande, who denied knowledge of politicisation
of food aid in the district, referred all questions to Chimanimani District
chief executive officer, Joseph Harahwa.

When contacted
for comment Harahwa said the council consulted the villagers before coming
up with the new figures.

"Where there are a lot of people
some are bound to complain. It's normal. In any case, what will you buy with
$100 000 these days?

Some people were actually saying the
amount is too little," Harahwa said.

He said the council
was ploughing back into the communities.

"We are building
roads which were affected by rains in the eastern part of the district. We
maintain dip-tanks and boreholes and other infrastructure for the
communities," he said.

Harahwa said those finding it
difficult to pay should seek exemption.

"Even those
people above the age of 60 should notify their councillors for
exemption."

Association of Rural District Councils president,
Jerry Gotora, said it was necessary to promote rural
development.

Gotora said the funds would be used in servicing
roads, building clinics, bridges and boreholes for the welfare of the rural
population.

"If people in rural areas want development they
will have to pay for it.

The age of donor-dependence is
long gone. They (the villagers) should become their own donors," Gotora
said.

Worker exodus threatens health care
systems

Zim Standard

By Bertha Shoko

THE continued loss of
skilled health care workers to the developed world is a serious threat to
health care systems in Zimbabwe and Africa and remains a challenge for the
continent, health experts have said.

This was said on Friday
as Zimbabwe joined the rest of the world in commemorating World Health Day.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) dedicated the day to solving what it
calls the "health workforce crisis".

And WHO must have had
Zimbabwe in mind when it chose to focus on this problem.

In Zimbabwe, the brain drain problem has become such a huge crisis that the
health delivery system is threatened with collapse.

The
country's health sector has deteriorated over the past few years due to
inadequate funding, shortages of foreign currency and the departure of
skilled health personnel to other countries offering better conditions of
service.

The Minister of Health and Child Welfare, David
Parirenyatwa, told The Standard that his ministry was taking the issue of
brain drain seriously and his ministry had taken part in a regional meeting
on World Health Day hosted by WHO on Friday in Zambia.

Parirenyatwa said: "The issue of brain drain is quite serious not only for
Zimbabwe but for the rest of Africa. We will let you know soon the measures
we have put in place to address this problem following this regional
meeting."

WHO says health workers, defined as people who
provide health care to those who need it, are the "heart of health
systems".

However, the organisation says these health
systems, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, are threatened by chronic
shortages of health workers as a result of decades of "underinvestment in
their education, training, salaries and working
environment".

WHO says: "The health workforce is in crisis -
a crisis to which no country is entirely immune.

This has
led to a severe lack of key skills, rising levels of career switching and
early retirement, as well as national and international
migration.

"In sub-Saharan Africa, where all the issues
mentioned above are combined with the HIV/Aids pandemic, there are an
estimated 750 000 health workers in a region that is home to 682 million
people.

By comparison, the ratio is 10 to 15 times higher in
OECD countries, whose ageing population is putting a growing strain on an
over-stretched workforce.

The WHO says solutions to this
crisis need to be worked out at local, national and international levels and
must involve governments, the United Nations, health professionals,
non-governmental organizations and community leaders.

"There is no single solution to such a complex problem, but ways forward do
exist and must now be implemented.

For example, some
developed countries have put policies in place to stop active recruitment of
health workers from severely understaffed countries.

"Some developing countries have revised their pay scales and introduced
non-monetary incentives to retain their workforce and deploy them in rural
areas," the WHO says.

Midzi bungles again!

Zim Standard

By Deborah-Fay
Ndhlovu

ZIMBABWEAN authorities are reportedly frustrating
efforts by an Australian company, in partnership with some Zimbabweans, to
mine uranium in Kanyemba amid reports that government was now lobbying
Russia to take up the project.

Lowenbrau is a partnership
between Omega Corporation Limited and an Australian company with a 70 %
shareholding and locals who include Robert Zhuwao, Roderick Mlauzi, Nkonzo
Chikosi and Charles Matezu.

The consortium was given a
Special Grant to mine uranium by the Mining Affairs Board last November and
indicated to the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development that it was ready
to invest about US$5 million for the initial exploration.

But its application could just bite the dust on signs that Mines Minister
Amos Midzi was sitting on the document and the contract could be awarded to
a Russian company.

Russia and China last year voted against a
decision to have Zimbabwe censored by the Security Council for the widely
condemned "Operation Murambatsina".

"The Permanent
Secretary is in Russia and he took along with him the details of the uranium
project. The Lowenbrau offer has been sitting with the Minister for a long
time and we do not actually know what is happening but suspect that they
want to give the SG to Russia," said a source close to the
proceedings.

"The Mining Affairs Board gave them a Special
Grant (No 10/05 HM) for the uranium project but the hold up is with the
Minister."

Standardbusiness was shown a letter to Lowenbrau,
which said the Mining Affairs Board, had approved their
application.

The letter, dated 20 December 2005 and signed by
L.Chimsasa (as secretary for the Mining Affairs' Board) reads: "I am pleased
to advise that the Mining Affairs Board at its 524th meeting found the above
application satisfactory and accordingly recommended it for approval by the
Minister."

Interuran discovered the uranium in 1981 and the
government says it intends to explore it for electricity production.
President Robert Mugabe declared last year "a year of investment" but
officials say his pronouncements are being scuttled by some of his officials
who are clandestinely giving away projects to undeserving
applicants.

Last year a war erupted between ZESA Holdings and
Hwange Colliery Company after government rescinded a decision to award the
Sinamatella grant for coal mining to HCC.

"That is the
thing with the government . last year the Mining Affairs Board approved that
Hwange be given the SG for Sinamatella but people were instructed from the
top that the decision be changed. The same could just happen with Lowenbrau
and they get taken over by Russia. Projects like these are sensitive," said
the source.

Potential investors have also been lost because
of the controversial Mines and Minerals Amendment Act. The Ministry of Mines
failed to award Exclusive Prospecting Orders last year resulting in
Zimbabwean companies losing potential investors.

Relief on the horizon for market

Zim Standard

marketwatch with Deborah-Fay Ndlovu

THE $14 trillion Treasury
Bill maturities expected into the money market this month should provide
relief to the stock market but could spell doomfor short-term interest
rates, analysts said last week.

A dip in short-term rates was
already expected last week on signs of ease on the deficit on the money
market. It opened Monday $9 trillion down but was forecast to close $6,8
trillion short on Wednesday after $2,7 trillion came in by way of TB
maturities. The deficit was expected further to ease to $4 trillion by end
of last week pushing short-term deposit rates down to an average of 350 %
for 7 to 14 days.

Banks were quoting a rate of 375 % for 30
days and 400 % for 60 days. The 91-day TB rate remained unchanged at 525 %
while the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe issued two tenders on Monday each
totaling $500 billion and $95,5 billion and $414 billion was allotted for
the two tenders respectively.

The injection of liquidity
on the market helped spark interest into the 91-day TB, which had been
failing to attract investors because of the cash
deficits.

Analysts said the challenge for the central bank
would be to mop up excess liquidity on the money market.

"Short-term rates will ease off in line with the increase in liquidity. What
remains to be seen is how the central bank will mop up the liquidity on the
market because it would be ideal to keep the market short," said Terence
Mazango of Highveld.

He however conceded that maintaining the
deficits would increase government debt.

"Government debt
should increase. As of now it was doubling every 91 days at 525%,' he
said.

The drop in interest rates however spelt good news for
the stock market, which analysts said, was likely to make
gains.

"We should see a change in fortunes for the equities
market because of the TB maturities that are coming in this month," said a
stockbroker with a Harare-based firm.

The industrial
index opened on a good note last week but lost ground on Wednesday after
dipping 2.13% to close at 30 230 829.12 points.

Counters to
lose last Wednesday included Econet which shed a $30 000 to close at $190
000. Meikles lost $5 000 to $165 000 while Hippo and Delta shed $2 000 each
to trade at $30 000 and $33 000 respectively, while Astra dropped $1100 to
$7000. Gains were in Colcom which upped $5 000 to $25 000. The mining index
was not spared the losses as it slipped 1.53% to close at 9 598 171.76
points pulled down by Bindura and Rio Zim.

The two counters
shed $2 500 and $100 000 each to close Wednesday at $10 000 and $700 000
respectively.

Zim holiday club takes locals on wild geese
chase

Zim Standard

From Gibbs Dube in Bulawayo

MORE
than 5 000 prominent business executives, lawyers and doctors have allegedly
lost billions of dollars following the closure of offices of the Holiday
Club Zimbabwe (HCZ) Private Limited, a leisure enterprise designed to
facilitate cheap holidays in South African resorts through a timeshare
scheme.

The HCZ, linked to Holiday Club South Africa (HCSA),
has closed its offices in Zimbabwe and is now being run from South Africa by
an administrator although the directors - Amanda and Steven Deller - still
reside in Kariba. Investigations by Standardbusiness have revealed that
local investors in the HCZ have been left in the cold as they can no longer
access South African resorts.

The Leisure Property Trust
Management Association (LPTMA) is supposed to safeguard levies and
membership fees collected through a timeshare scheme yet members have never
been given a copy of the constitution.

They have not even
attended a single annual general meeting of the holiday club as per
provisions of the LPTMA constitution. The financial records of the Holiday
Club Zimbabwe have not been made public since 1995, leaving members worried
about the financial status of the company.

Members, who have
not accessed holiday resorts for more than two years, were recently shocked
when they received bills averaging $45 million per person indicating that
they needed to update their HCZ levies, subscriptions and
timeshares.

Although Steven and Amanda Deller refused to
comment on the issue saying in a statement that "we can not respond to any
of your questions", Sammy Yeo - based in South Africa and currently the
Administration Services Manager of the Holiday Club headquarters in
Johannesburg - acknowledged that the HCZ was facing serious
problems.

Yeo said the HCZ stopped marketing in the country
in 2003 due to crippling effects of hyperinflation which has resulted in the
acute shortages of fuel for tourism activities in
Zimbabwe.

She said the HCZ has been facing difficulties
stemming from lack of petrol for tourists to travel from South Africa to
tourism destinations in Zimbabwe while at the same time, "there is no fuel
to run our houseboats in the country".

Yeo, without
elaborating, said members of the HCZ should not feel cheated as their levies
and related subscriptions were used for maintaining resorts in Zimbabwe,
which include Hakuna Matata, and some houseboats in
Kariba.

"We have further costs such as staff salaries, this
includes cleaning staff, gardeners, receptionists ... There is also certain
maintenance involved in order to keep the resorts in a decent state. These
fees are only covering operational expenses."

However,
responding to recent queries by members about the running of the HCZ, she
noted that there were financial irregularities in the HCZ that led to the
closure of the company's offices in Zimbabwe and lack of access by members
to international holiday resorts.

Members have questioned the
levying of membership and reservation fees every year which are not backed
up by audited financial statements despite such requirements under the
Companies Act. Kudenga and Company, a Zimbabwean firm of chartered
accountants, is believed to be looking into the finances of the
HCZ.

A spokesman for the company said that "we are working on
the finances of the Holiday Club Zimbabwe but I cannot tell you anything
more than this." According to the chairman of an association of concerned
HCZ members, Feny Mlambo, the operations of the club have been shrouded in
mystery since 1995.

In 2000, there were over 5 000
members but the number has since dropped to 1 312 in 2006 owing to lack of
accountability by the Holiday Club Zimbabwe.

A prominent
Bulawayo lawyer, Joseph James, who is one of the members of the HCZ, said:
"We are exploring all the avenues to ensure that we get to the bottom of the
whole thing. Members are depressed as they may have most billions of dollars
to the Holiday Club."

The members paid varying amounts to the
HCZ between 1995 and 2005 but have been irked by lack of financial
accountability and access to South African holiday resorts due to the recent
closure of the offices of the HCZ and lack of information on their invested
funds.

Another tough year for Zimbabwe firms

MOST companies have painted a gloomy
outlook this year as the country's macro-economic environment continues to
deteriorate, with no solution in sight from government.

In the just ended reporting season, most businesses across all sectors said
they were tightening their belts in anticipation of another tough
year.

In statements accompanying year-end results, quoted
companies said they were bracing for another tough year characterised by a
harsh operating environment.

Mining concern, Bindura
Nickel Corporation (BNC) has said 2006 looks to be another difficult year
and the macro-economic fundamentals continued to pose a serious threat to
the viability of the business, with continuing high levels of inflation
accompanied by high interest rates.

Medical group, Medtech
Holdings said urgent measures were required to arrest the decline in the
economy.

"The economic environment continues to deteriorate
and we can only hope that urgent measures are taken to correct this without
any dramatic policy changes and policy contradictions. We do, however,
anticipate another difficult year ahead and management is ready to deal with
challenges as they arise," said Medtech.

Building
society, Beverley said the economic challenges were expected to continue
well into 2006.

It however said that it expected the
authorities to remain resolute in their turn around of the
economy.

Finhold, a significant player in the financial
sector, said the operating environment in the banking sector is expected to
remain challenging on the back of a tight monetary policy being pursued by
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe as it seeks to rein in on inflation in
2006.

Tobacco merchants, British American Tobacco (BAT) says
the macro-economic priority will be stabilising the economy by managing
inflation downwards and boosting foreign currency supply.

". Consumer purchasing power is likely to remain depressed which will put
pressure on company sales volumes," BAT warned.

Stanbic Bank
said with the high rate of inflation, tight liquidity will persist and
interest rates will remain high in the first half of the year. Zimbabwe
dollar's free-fall is also expected to maintain its momentum and this will
cause immense pressure on the operating expenditure and there will be little
borrowing because of the high lending rates and the perennial foreign
currency shortages.

Zimbabwe's macro-economic environment has
made it difficult to thrive with most companies operating below full
capacity.

Capacity utilisation in most manufacturing firms is
standing at less than 50% due to the shortage of raw materials compounded by
the shortage of foreign currency.

The inflation rate is
on upward trend and was in February standing at 782% and is expected to peak
further in the next few months.

Most exports have become
unviable, as the interbank has remained static at $99 258 to US$1 since
January while inflation has gained momentum over the corresponding
period.

The government, a significant player in the player,
seems clueless of the solutions required to arrest the haemorrhaging in the
economy that has resulted in most investors shunning the country and most
companies in the country operate on survival mode.

Zimbabweans reflect on an
independence dream deferred

Zim Standard

Comment

IN exactly nine days, Zimbabweans
throughout and outside the country will gather to mark 26 years of
independence, but for the majority the occasion will provide sobering
moments to reflect on how they could claim so much but yet have so little to
show for it.

Independence brought freedom for the
dispossessed and oppressed black majority, but many question if the freedom
to be unemployed, freedom not to afford basic commodities, health care,
education, and housing as well as denial of freedom to differ with those who
rule us today, can be the sum total of being independent.

While a select few - aligned to the ruling party - feed from the high table
of independence, the majority cannot escape the reality that increasing
impoverishment blights their understanding of independence.

Regrettably, an increasing number see independence as trading one oppressive
system for another and many of the gallant sons and daughters who paid the
supreme sacrifice will wonder, too, whether the nightmare they see unfolding
today is the dream they fought and perished for at home and in foreign
lands.

Independence has brought sharp disparities between
those who have monopolised the natural resources and wealth that this
country is so endowed with, and those whose aspirations for a Promised Land
are being aborted.

At Independence, President Robert
Mugabe, then Prime Minister, made a pledge that his government was
determined to bring about meaningful change to the lives of the majority of
the people in this country.

He also said: "If ever we look to
the past, let us do so for the lesson the past has taught us, namely that
oppression and racism are inequities that must never again find scope in our
political and social system.

It could never be a correct
justification that because the whites oppressed us yesterday when they had
power, the blacks must oppress them today because they have
power.

An evil remains an evil whether practised by white
against black or by black against white.

"Our majority
rule could easily turn into inhuman if we oppressed, persecuted or harassed
those who do not look or think like the majority of us.

"Democracy is never mob-rule.

It is and should remain
disciplined rule requiring compliance with the law and social
rules.

Our Independence must thus not be construed as an
instrument vesting individuals or groups of individuals with the right to
harass and intimidate others into acting against their
will.

"It is not the right to negate the freedom of others to
think and act as they desire. I, therefore, wish to appeal to all of you to
respect each other and act in promotion of national unity rather than in
negation of that unity."

We approach 18 April this year
reflecting on these pronouncements and asking ourselves, how it could be
possible that our everyday reality could stand in total contrasts to the
promise and pledge President Mugabe made to the people of this country in
the presence of Heads of State and Government of nearly 100 nations, as well
as representatives of several international, political and voluntary
organisations.

Despite claims of the success of the so-called
land reform programme, there are still people without land who need
land.

There are more people without jobs who desperately need
jobs.

There are children dropping out of schools, threatening
a society of ignorant people and there are patients who need healthcare but
have found the health delivery system unaffordable.

Let's
get back to the drawing board and draw from instructive lessons of the past
two and a half decades.

Zim Standard Letters

MDC factions lack gender
sensitivity THE much talked about MDC congresses have come and
gone but the two events have left one thing clear in the people's minds: the
factions are gender insensitive.

Elections at the two
congresses saw women virtually failing to get any substantive posts in the
national executives - an indication that the party is full of male
chauvinists and megalomaniacs not concerned with empowering the womenfolk
within their midst.

The executives that were elected at the
congresses leave those who claim to champion women's rights and equality of
men and women wondering whether our brothers in the MDC in any way believe
in that.

It is surprising that at a time the debate on giving
women more meaningful roles in society is hotting up, those in the MDC chose
to conveniently ignore it.

Political organisations such
as Zanu PF have actually reserved a third of all positions for women and it
is unbelievable that women's groups have not come out in full support of
this development, in as much as they have not cried foul over their being
belittled by the MDC.

One wonders why local non-governmental
organisations and civic groups find it difficult to criticise the MDC in
areas it is wrong, but are quick to criticise government using all sorts of
words.

Women who decided to contest for posts at the Morgan
Tsvangirai-led faction found the going tough, resulting in the likes of
Grace Kwinjeh withdrawing their candidature.

So
disappointed was Kwinjeh that she described the outcome of the election as a
sign that patriarchy had once again firmly entrenched itself in the top
leadership of the party.

To her, the whole thing was a
non-event. Out of five women who stood for election, only one prevailed -
that is Thoko Khupe who was elected to the party's vice
presidency.

It should be noted that Khupe only made it
because she contested against one of her own gender - Getrude
Mthombeni.

Commenting on the same outcome, Lucia Matibenga,
the chairperson of the National Women's Assembly, said the MDC remained
gender blind as there was no policy pronouncement within the party to ensure
the meaningful participation of women.

It is surprising
how the MDC is failing to move with time. At SADC level, the leadership has
moved from a quota system for women to 50%.

In compliance
with that requirement the newly elected Tanzanian President, Jakaya Kikwete
appointed women to almost 50% of his Cabinet posts.

Kikwete went further to give women key portfolios such as Finance and
Foreign Affairs. Africa is currently celebrating the election of Ellen
Johnson-Sirleaf as the first women to be elected Head of State on the
continent.

In Southern Africa, Zimbabwe and South Africa
set the ball rolling when they elected women vice presidents in Joice Mujuru
and Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka respectively.

It is therefore
mind-boggling how those in the MDC saw it fit to go against the
tide.

One wonders then whether a party that dreams of being
in power one day will then be able to advance the cause of women once in
power.

The MDC's preparedness to accommodate women in
decision-making positions will once again be put to the test in the Budiriro
by-election in May, and local government elections scheduled for September
2006.

Zanu PF, on the other hand, is already making
preparations for the elections with the chairperson of the Women's League,
Oppah Muchinguri, revealing that they are going to ensure that as women they
will field a third of the candidates.

Another area the
Tsvangirai faction failed to address was the ethnic balance within the
national executive - a critical factor in African
politics.

It has been observed that Tsvangirai's
executive, apart from Khupe and Lovemore Moyo - who were only elected as
deputies to Tsvangirai and Isaac Matongo (national chairperson) respectively
- has no significant representation from the Ndebele ethnic
grouping.

This apparent failure by the Tsvangirai faction
could prove to be its undoing in its efforts to garner support from all
regions including Matabeleland. It is obvious that Khupe is just a figure
head.

I would subscribe to the view that "for the first time
in Zimbabwe, we have a party that does not have an Ndebele in a substantive
leadership position".

Food for
thought.

Albert Mlambo

Avondale

Harare

-------

End is nigh for Zanu PF mob I HAVE always wondered whether
government supporters have any grey matter in their heads. Are they
controlled by a mob spirit mentality for all their
actions?

Events that took place during the Zanu PF
congress in Matabeleland reinforce my conclusion that the party's supporters
are brainless.

They vocally pushed their party to
persecute Non-Governmental Organisations that are perceived as working
against the Zanu PF government.

For advocating for
a new and democratic constitution, independent newspapers are wrongfully
thought to be supporting those against the
government.

Only brain dead people can bite the hand
that feeds them. Non-Governmental Organisations have been helping
Zimbabweans with food and medicines.

These
organisations have not been discriminating in their distribution of food and
medical drugs as the ruling party has been doing over the
years.

Advocates of a new, democratic constitution are
not doing so for one party, one ethnic grouping or one section of the
country but they are fighting for all political parties, all ethnic groups
in this country and for Zimbabwe as a whole.

Without independent newspapers three quarters of Zimbabweans would have gone
crazy reading only the government praise-singing newspapers, and watching
and listening to our mediocre television and radio.

Lack of balanced reporting has destroyed the reasoning of Zanu PF
supporters.

What these praise singers fail to realise
is that what is being done today to persecute the opposition will one day be
used against them.

A glaring example is the case of
Jonathan Moyo, whose tongue seems to have been gagged by the very
legislations he pushed through Parliament. Many of the country's law
breakers are Zanu PF supporters.

I would like to warn
these law breakers that the day of reckoning is just around the
corner.

Let us not hear them howling and screaming for
the non-governmental organisations, independent newspapers, independent
radios, and others to publicise their pending just desserts. Be
warned.

Non-Parrot

Masvingo

----------

Chihwayi must back his claims with concrete
proof THIS is an open letter directed to
Kurauone Chihwayi, whose letter that was headlined (Arthur) Mutambara is
just what the doctor ordered cannot go
unchallenged.

While I do not deny that
President Robert Mugabe's time is up, I found your claims that "Mutambara is
a tried and tested revolutionary" difficult to
accept.

I think you need to support your
claims with evidence for the benefit of people like me who didn't know
Mutambara until February this year.

I
am 21 and a university student and I didn't know Mutambara until recently,
so I was a little bit surprised to hear that he was taking over the
leadership of the MDC.

What has Mutambara
done for him to be called a
"revolutionary"?

What was he successful
in? Almost every Zimbabwean knows what Morgan Tsvangirai has achieved from
the late 1980's and it will be a waste of time to go into detail about that.
Mutambara is yet to gain reasonable support for him to stand the ground in
Zimbabwean politics.

Can we truly say
Tsvangirai is taking the people of Zimbabwe for a ride when he is not the
leader of a country, unlike Mugabe?

Tafadzwa Njovana
Harare

----------- Defining the true
leader REAL leaders are not defined by their
good oratory skills and charisma

Real
leaders are not defined by their impressive academic track
records

Real leaders are defined by
drawing strong crowds at venues like the Zimbabwe grounds and the city
sports centre

Real leaders are not
defined by the number of press conferences they
address

Real leaders are defined by
sympathising with the people at Whitecliff after catastrophes like Operation
Murambatsvina

Real leaders are not
defined by their liberation war
credentials

Real leaders are defined by
sticking to matters of principle even if it means "violating" the party's
constitution for the benefit of the
masses

Real leaders are not defined by
holding lavish birthday parties when millions are
starving

Real leaders are defined by
walking to work thus showing solidarity with the millions that cannot access
fuel on the black market You all know who
the real leader is!

Tatenda B
Kunaka

University of
Zimbabwe

-------------------- Farmers a let
down

THE once thriving areas of farming in
the countryside now lie idle.

Trees and
grasses of all kinds now grow taller than expected where crops once
flourished.

In the case of the Middle Save,
the land that used to accommodate workers in their thousands remains
unproductive.

The State gave land to the
new settlers to feed the nation,but the result is starvation. We should
blame those who were given the land but have betrayed the expectation that
they would put it to productive use.

Livestock and wild animals live on natural plants and other animals but
human beings have to work for their living.

Tennyson Marwa

Mutema High
School

Chipinge

-----------

MDC owes late
MP

THE MDC participated in the 2005
Parliamentary elections.

Now that their
MP for Budiriro has died, the party should honour him for his fight against
Zanu PF injustice by participating in future by-elections in this
constituency.

This seat must be retained by
the MDC in order to appease the fighting spirit of the late
MP.

Nothing could be a greater honour for
this fallen hero than the MDC retaining the
seat

On the issue of withdrawing sitting
MDC MPs from Parliament, I believe they should be allowed to complete their
terms because they had the blessing of the party and the electorate when
they were elected during the 2005 Parliamentary
elections.

May God bless Morgan
Tsvangirai's wise leadership.

D R
Mutungagore

Mutare
-------------

Atrocious
commentary

THE standard of soccer
commentary on both Radio Zimbabwe and Spot FM is
poor.

I was listening to Spot FM's
commentary during the match between Highlanders and Dynamos at Barbourfields
Stadium the other day, and was shocked by Skumbuzo
Moyo.

He was almost
crying.

It was also clear that he is a
Bosso fan.

Philemon Mhlanga as well as Lee
Nkala and others should not provide the
commentary.

Charles Mabika and Stanley
Katsande are not doing a thorough job of
it.

A
Mahko

Bindura

---------- Mutambara is already messing up big
time I AM disturbed by the antics of Arthur
Mutambara. In the few weeks he has been in mainstream politics, Mutambara
has already messed up big time.

This
is surprising coming from someone who is very educated. Maybe this is proof
that true leadership is not based on intellectual prowess but on good
character. A good leader must be consistent, honest, humble and respectful.
Indeed it is these traits that have made people like Mother Theresa and
Nelson Mandela icons.

Unfortunately,
Mutambara has patently exhibited lack of these qualities since he was
appointed leader of the MDC pro-Senate faction. He has positioned himself as
a unifier of the two MDC factions. I expect this role to be carried out by
neutrals such as church organizations, Crisis Coalition of Zimbabwe and the
National Constitutional Assembly.

Mutambara is far from being an honest broker, for he harbours an intention
to become President of a united MDC. Therefore, to him the pro-Senate
faction is a mere stepping-stone to the fulfilment of his dream. Viewed this
way, his association with Welshman Ncube and others is not sincere. It is
actually opportunistic.

The clean man
here is David Coltart, who has chosen to remain non-aligned so that both
camps can hear him. In his acceptance speech, Mutambara publicly distanced
himself from his benefactors. It is on record that the faction he now leads
has been lampooning and vilifying Morgan Tsvangirai since the 12 October
fallout.

Now, for him to describe
Tsvangirai as his hero and, furthermore, to declare his anti-Senate stance
on a pro-Senate stage is as good as biting the hand that feeds him. I would
have expected Mutambara to privately convince his colleagues of his position
so that they speak with one voice.

At
the Bulawayo congress there was no such unison taking into consideration
Gibson Sibanda's vitriol against Tsvangirai. If Mutambara had consulted his
colleagues first, he would have demonstrated the sincerity of his claim that
had he been a member of the then MDC National Council, he would have tried
hard to convince fellow members of the weight of his position and, on
failing to do so, he would have stuck with the majority decision at the
expense of his own opinion.

It therefore
appears that Mutambara conveniently uttered that statement in order to
project himself as more democratic than
Tsvangirai.

Mutambara calls himself
"untainted" and hence suitable to take over the reins of opposition power.
This is a "holier-than-thou" attitude. It smacks of total disrespect for
those who went ahead of him in fighting against the oppressive system in
Zimbabwe.

I find Mutambara's
anti-imperialism rhetoric nauseating, especially coming from someone with
such international exposure. His stance is anachronistic at a time of
globalisation and international partnerships such as Nepad. I quote Dr Simba
Makoni: "The world does not need Zimbabwe. It is Zimbabwe who needs the
world."

Once again, it is obvious that
Mutambara's obsession with imperialism is personal and hence not
representative of his constituency. So much for his democratic credentials!
The pro-Senate faction should rein in its President now to avoid further
embarrassment.

I have also read that
Mutambara was recently on the rampage, vowing to "destroy" Tsvangirai. This
is the height of inconsistency further entrenching the view that the man is
arrogant and power-hungry. Why spew venom against your own
"hero"?

We have had enough of people like
President Robert Mugabe and Professor Jonathan Moyo who use their
intelligence for self-aggrandisement. History must not keep on repeating
itself. Taneta!